Whoever Brings the Night
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: His secret was hidden in the Scroll for thirteen years. Not anymore. Left for dead after an attempt on his life, Naruto leaves Konoha. With hate in his heart and truth in hand, he vows vengeance for the life of his mother and all Uchiha. Dark NarutoxHarem
1. Trust or a Lack Thereof

**_A/N: Lessee here, hmm...ahem...This, well...hmmm...how should I put this? The other day I watched sizeable amount of the darker episodes of Naruto. I found their lack of faith disturbing. No pun intended. So, I got to thinking, as I always seem to do (You know what I mean if you've read Beyond the Shadows)Naruto takes too much abuse, too, TOO much for my liking! This fic, is, basically, what would, could, or SHOULD happen if all that hatred for the Kyuubi made our favorite blond snap. Especially if someone really did make that attempt on his life and leave him half dead, from what I've read._**

**_Basically, a very pissed, very BADASS dark Naruto when he returns several years later and begins his plot of revenge. What on earth were you thinking, Naruto no baka! You shouldn't have put up with any of that nastiness in the first place! That being said, the setting is roughly three years later than in canon and is DELIBERATE. Not much has changed aside from the fact that Naruto is basically a little older than the rest of the gang, for the sake of the story, older fools ya fools. And to answer the immediate question I KNOW you'll all be asking, this is at a point, a pivotal point, just a little AFTER the preliminary exams. _**

**_Did I mention his plans inolve recruiting a number of allies?_**

**_BEWARE: Naruto...is rather dark and saddistic in this ficlet, and you'll soon see why, so read very carefully and all shall be explained! Also, Shipudden events have yet to happen just thought I'd mention that as when the time skip comes THEN Shippuden will begin. For now, this is just Naruto, Dark and not nice Naruto, but Naruto nonetheless, he'll have his moments of niceness like all villains do, I guess...(sigh) it'll probably also be a harem because I can't see him sticking with one girl from the way I've made him T_T._**

**_NARUTO WILL HAVE HIS REVENGE SO VOTE FOR DE PAIRINGS FOOLS YA FOOLS XD!_**

**_Also, he's..., well, you'll just have to read and see._**

**_The Power of Darkness_**

_'We're...we're going to die!'_

Kin Tsuchi scrambled over a bed of wet cobblestones, her jeans soaked from the chilly stream below, her shirt from the freezing drizzle above. She slumped backwards against a large boulder, her mouth hanging slack as she gasped for breath. She knew Zaku was beside her, somewhere beyond the stone, his frantic eyes prowling the gulley for any sign of their pursuer. She looked down at what had once been her left arm, now burnt to such an extent that she could barely even force it into a fist.

How had this happened?

A dull _whump _signaled the boulder's destruction at her back. Kin curled into a ball and somehow succeeded in shielding a bruised rib from the worst of the blast. and then their was only the intensity of raw travesty to greet her flailing form. Kin's face became intimate with the ground in a way that no self-respecting kunoichi would want and then he saw her and she was on her feet, running again.

"Zankuha!" Zaku bellowed, the ruined arms he'd once been so proud, only just healed, just repaired, spewing a rippling wave of pressure. Their opponent smiled, _damnit he smiled, _and Abumi Zaku fell into a bloodied heap of viscera. Kin joined soon thereafter, visions of her own end flashing before her eyes as she crumpled to her knees beside the battered genin; utterly paralyzed. He stalked forth, golden eyes narrowed to amused, half-lidded slits as he came toward Zaku, because Zaku would be first.

Why?

Terrified black eyes could only stare on in horror at the sight before them. She watched, horrified, as the body of her comrade was tossed about violently like a lifeless doll. Where had she gone wrong? What had they done to make him betray them? Had they not been nothing short of loyal? Had they not pledged to serve him unconditionally?

Why were they being hunted?

The body was thrown against the ground, at her knees. She couldn't get up. The older boy's hand weakly grasped for a support, only to end up with a fistful of dirt. Feebly, Zaku lifted his head towards Kin. He extended his shaking arm towards her, as if to reach out to her.

"K-kin…" he choked. "…What did we do wrong?"

She could only stare on in horror as the foot of their assaulter came stomping violently down on the boy's back, causing several ribbons of crimson liquid to be forced out of his mouth. Kin gasped, too scared to say anything, to injured to move from her spot.

Why was this happening?

Her shocked expression slowly turned to anger, burning tears welled in her eyes.

"Y-you….bastard! Why are you doing this?" She shouted, her voice trembling.

Orochimaru's cruel grin never left his face as he pulled his foot back and kicked Zaku's lifeless body in her direction. There was silence as Kin's eyes trailed to Zaku's pale face. She found herself cradling his limp head against her; in false, unreal hopes of bringing the boy back to life. Hot tears gained their freedom as they rebelliously started streaming down her dirtied and bruised face. Now, both of her comrades were dead.

But…

…had they really been her comrades to start with? Had they not cared about her well-being at all when that loud, blonde, Konoha kunoichi had obtained control over her body? Had they not, indeed, actually _attacked_ her while she was being manipulated? She lowered her head, clenching her eyes shut.

No one had ever cared for her from the start, had they? She had been alone from the beginning, fending for herself. The comatose corpse she held so possessively in her arms would have cared less if it had been only _her_ with this cruel fate. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to let go the body of her fallen teammate.

Orochimaru stepped closer.

She blinked back her tears that had yet to subside. Was this really the end? Was she to die here? Alone, unwanted, and humiliated? For surley, this man she had once called her Master had used her, as well as her deceased comrades, for nothing more than his pawns? His tools that were expendable?

She swallowed the lump that had begun to grow in her throat.

_Why?_

Why her?

Why now?

Her aggressor stopped and kneeled to face her. She couldn't bring herself to face him. Was this the end?

"You…" her eyes shot open when she finally heard his terribly chilling voice. "…have no more use to me."

She lifted her head slowly, clinging to Zaku's dead frame. Her widened eyes gawked in horror as Orochimaru grinned viciously. Having no family, she had once looked up to this man as her master. She had committed the entirety of her short life to serving him. Loyally, faithfully, without question. She'd done everything he'd ever asked of her. She'd never disobeyed, not once, and so the question still lingered, where had she gone wrong? What had she done?

"No...

Zaku twitched, inexplicably.

"What a foolish thing to do." The man who'd given her everything smiled; _sneering _as he obliterated her seedling of hope and turned its fruit to ash with his mocking words. "Had you lain still, you might have lived for a little longer, boy."

Abruptly, her was before her, eyes hardened. The words died in her mouth, the sound replaced with blood, as the tapered tip of the Kusanagi drilled through_...Zaku?_She blinked, her eyes opening and closing within an infinite slowness as her teammate shifted in her arms, bolting upright at the very last second. Kin felt a finger poke her stomach, but there was no pain forthcoming. There was no pain none, none at all. No, there was only the hollow enormity swelling within her chest, as Zaku's chest imploded; sparing her life_...in exchange for his own._

"Zaku?" Kin blinked, dread seizing her as she noticed the every growing pull of blood beneath her comrade. "Zaku!" No response came from those pale and blue lips, save for a soft and steady whistle, curling his visage upward into a final, defiant smile. He bore no pulse and did not breathe, yet still, the rythym did carry itself upon the winds. With one last gasp at life, Zaku Abumi gave his last, and shuddering request.

"Please...don't die also...Kin." Zaku died in mid-breath, a slight tremor passing through his body, his eyes still fixed on her. Numbed by the sudden termination, Kin couldn't bring herself to lay a hand on either of his eyes because that would mean touching him, and drawing shut his lids. She wouldn't be acknowledging his death, and she couldn't bear to do that. She just couldn't, and knowing it would be in vain, she fought the tears and raged impotently against the bile that rose up inside her throat.

_"Oh, god."_

She kept cradling it within her arms, rocking him back and forth as if it was going to somehow pump vitality back into his dead veins. She didn't care that there was a sword and an arm buried in chest, she didn't care that she was going to die, she didn't care bout any of it except that he was dead...dead...and there nothing to be done.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" With a revolting splatter Orochimaru extracted a bloodied palm from the boy's ribs and showed it to Kin. He held those frail-looking fingers to her face, cupping her cheek, trailing a quintet of scarlet streaks down her jawline. "Don't worry, you'll be joining him soon enough." Zaku was wrenched free from her arms, desecrated, falling to the earth. A cry was stuck somewhere inside her, lost in the dark emptiness of her throat as he fell, woodenly, not taking enough care. Deprived of the forces holding it upright, Zaku's corpse slid from her lap, its head smacking roughly against the unyielding firmness of grit and gravell grit ground and substances that were of the forest. Zaku's limbs were loose, graceless, lying in an uncomfortable position as she fussed and fretted; trying to pull him back into her arms and ellicit some sort of response from this motionless body that was just like...like...

Just like any other corpse.

"ZAKU!"

Somehow, her legs interpreted this as a threat response because she was hurtling away from the sannin. Displeasure flashed across that face, then she was skipping backwards with Zaku gripped in her arms. She made all of two leaps_ -not enough-_before her legs crumpled and she slammed back-first into the dirt. Zaku flopped loosely around as she fumbled to her knees, screamed. Screaming, for lack of a better word, bloody murder.

"You didn't actually...Oh god... That's..._uurgh!" _

Kin Tsuchi screamed.

Kin screamed and she shrieked and she raged with what little power she had, rebelling against her own weakness, her loss, her sorrow, and the boy in her arms that would not ever breath or smile or quip an irritable reply when she bested him; because Kin had always bested the boys, and she'd been the best amongst their closely knit little group. Now Zaku was dead and Dosu, well, Dosu was little more than a smear of blood on some rooftop somewhere, _the fool!_

"Oh," Kin whimpered as she fell to her knees, her bloodied hand rubbing the boy's cold cheek. "Oh no. Oh no, oh no," she repeated, as though it would somehow revive the teenager. She could feel her eyes growing impossibly hot, like they were going to boil out of their sockets and run down her face in place of the tears that already were. She touched her clean hand to her lips, as if the small action could lessen the anguish that she was feeling in her chest.

And then another sound tore through the air, a deadly hissing that she was more than familiar with.

_Laughter._

"He dead," Orochimaru's voice oozed out toward her as he swallowed that filthy sword. "Don't waste your tears on him, child."He took a few steps forward, his feet slowly and eventually reaching the mourning body of his former student. He looked down, his ever-present grin faltering slightly as he watched Kin pause and ceasing her mourning. A murmur of aggravation parted her lips and pulled at her face, contracting into a fierce scowl; uttering a blackened and condemnatory oath that she never used; because the kunoich had suddenly abandoned her silent weeping over the dead man in her arms and snapped her gaze toward him with a hacking sound reminiscent of a strangled gurgle.

_"Don't waste my time?" _Defiance flickered, sputtered, then roared high in her eyes, seething out at him with her voice as she stood woodenly, not taking enough care for the corpse behind._ "I've already wasted all of that!" _Her hand closed around one of the kunai scattered about for the ritual preparations, ripping free of the ground in a second. "We've wasted everything on you! Everything! First Dosu, then Zaku...and now me, and you say we're not longer of use to you?"

"What would you like me to do about that then, Kin?"

"I'd like you to die!" There was such vehemence behind her shriek that momentarily, Orochimaru was amused. Then he put an end to it. Kin froze as killing intent wafted out across the clearing, always grisly in its images, filling her mind with visions of her own death. She slumped to her knees, face twisting into a rictus of helpless fury. The _hole _in her stomach changed all of that. Distraught, Kin tried to say something, _anything, _in memory of Zaku's final sacrifice, but the words would not come. And then there was motion. She doubled over in pain, shocked as thick, scarlet blood expelled itself from her mouth and spilled onto the floor. Orochimaru wiggled those blood digits before his face, spattering Kin in flecks of blood and viscera as he leered down at her; made impotent at last.

"That, will cost you dearly, child." Orochimaru smiled as though he hadn't a care in the world, and he probably didn't. "Now, remain where you are." He began to form seals, and Kin lay there, dejected, eyes welling but refusing to shed the tears that burned and stung at her eyes.

_'After all this... _

Kin coughed fiftfully, and expelled a shower of blood from her lungs.

_'Zaku...Dosu...I'm sorry!'_

Kin closed her eyes and winced, pain blossoming all over her body. She wouldn't cry. She refused to cry. There was no point in shedding tears because tears were useless, weak, irrelevant. She forced her gaze to meet that of her "master" and then the tears started coming. They came, because she couldn't bear to watch Zaku being smothered by the ashes of the deceased. And he was. She had to watch those tethers of shadow and dust and dirt winding around his body, consuming him and taking the shape of the resurrected victim for Orochimaru's jutsu. She lay there, bound, helpless, weak in every sense of the word, and Kin Tsuchi wept, cursing her own impotence.

Why couldn't she be allowed...to live?

It was a curious thought to bring to the grave.

_'Damnit..._

Kin felt her vision going white. She knew she should try to keep her eyes open, but then she realized they _were _open; and none of it mattered at all. Her time had come. She was going to die. Kin knew it and when the white began to swallow her up, she did not resist. Enough was enough. She was already dead. Doomed. Finished. Extinguished. Erased. These, and all the others words that smacked of finality; defined her and she hated them. Hers was a death she'd never wanted; never deserved, and all because some psychopathic homophobic freak deemed that she was worthless. _She,_Tsuchi Kin of the infamous Tsuchi clan, who'd never had the chance to display her true skills in her match against that Nara bastard _-damn him-_was worthless. Orochimaru was killing her because she'd failed to live up to his expectations, and whomever had set those impossible standards was probably in dead in a ditch like this one, too.

Kin was dead, so she paid no attention when a hand closed around her hair. She was _already _dead. Who was she to care what they did with her corpse? Who was she to care as Orochimaru screeched and swore and spat so many curses that she shouldn't be able to hear any of them? Kin wanted to laugh but she'd bitten her tongue during the bitterly brief scuffle with her -former- master, and those of the dead did not laugh; nor did they feel pain.

And then the hand fisted into those lusciously long raven locks of which she'd become so very proud. Kin blinked, confusion filling charcoal black orbs, eyes that had once been dull and lifeless. Beginning at the bast of her neck and shooting toward her skull where the roots of her hair lay; she felt the first pinprick of a strange sensation that she was most uncomfortable with. Abruptly, her back arched and her neck twisted itself so far back that she feared it would break, as someone or something, hauled her backward.

Not gently.

Pain erupted in the base of her skull, immediately pursued by a supernova of spitting and slapping and shrieking. Damn, had that bastard brought her back to life just to kill her a second time? But this hand resonated warmth; nothing at all like the frigid touch of the rain upon that slate gray hand.

Kin wasn't dead.

For a blessed eternity, there was no pain.

_'W-Wha..._

Vehemence, or the glaring _lack-there-of,_ellicited an amused chuckle. Kin didn't dare dream of a rescue attempt, after all, who on earth would possibly want anything to do with her? She knew only two things. Whomever this was, he was strong. Strong, and _fucking fast._ Strong enough to blur backward while hauling her toward the canopy via a fistful of hair; agile enough to perform a series of one-handed seals even as he inhaled, exhaled, _dousing _the earth within a dense stream of blue and black flames. Then her world blurred; she was being twisting aside, presented with one last glimpse of Orochimaru's disbelieving visage, amongst the flames, twisting into a furious scowl and subsequent hiss of indignation.

Then they were gone into the night and the pursuit began...

...and ended in a second.

_'Shit!'_

Kin felt herself be hurtled through the wall and found herself tossed through the forest.

_'Shit! Shit shit SHIT!'_

Kin had just enough time to blink before she was flung out into open space. Kin screamed; because she was too terrified to do anything else. Chakra boiled past and left her warmed within the ensuing confalgration that consumed the floor. Then her hair jerked backward again, and pulled her with it. She landed in a pair of arms, which, subserviently flung her backward yet again. Whomever grabbed her long tresses was nowhere to be seen, and even if they had been, darkness smothered everything so intensely that Kin could only kick and flail and protest in weak defiance.

"L-Let go...of me."

Kin was promptly dropped on her butt, but at the speed she'd been moving, she was sent sprawling. Stars exploded before her eyes and forced her numbed body into motion; scraped her chin off the ground, and forcing her to search for her attacker/murderer/rescuer. For a blessed eternity, she saw nothing. _Then _she saw something. At first she thought she was imagining it. It began as a whisper of wind, a puff of dust scattered in the moonlight clearing into which she'd been hurled.

"What foul sorcery is this?" Wreathed in a thin sheathe of dust, Orochimaru emerged from the inexcusable failure of his experiment. Placing one hand across the shattered granite that had once been the wall of this complex, he stepped out into the smoldering ruin of its tragic aftermath. Flaming rubble lay strewn about the remains of the compound, and Kin, her progress marked by a deep trough through which she'd been flung to safety, sprawled across the floor, completely unharmed.

"No, its nothing." Confounded by the sudden explosion and ensuing obliteration of his base, Orochimaru peered at the dust in contempt. "A trick of the wind" He scowled at Kin and this little plume of dust trickling out into the open air, risking a glance toward Zaku's bereaved corpse. His gaze lingered for a moment longer before he decided to leave it lay; the boy was already dead. Now, he'd have to retrieve the girl and complete the preparations sometime within the next two months before the third round of those lovely little exams. He exhaled, opting to leave it covered in ash. Trick or treat, it mattered not. Now now, when this auxiliary base was too damaged from the explosion to risk another attempt.

_'Curses!'_

Damnation but now the Anbu would surely come. He'd chosen this location, this secluded little grove located just outside of Konoha's outer wall, because it was well hidden and no one would think to look for him here while he conducted his experiments. With a legion of _-somewhat-_ skilled shinobi only a few miles away, it posed a risk, but Orochimaru was accustomed to risks. He was not, however, accustomed to the inexplicable implosion of his base. Now, they were left exposed to the elements; to the moonlight, as the storm had _-eerily enough-_ chosen to subside.

Strange.

The rain had stopped, and they were presented with the infinite brilliance of the full moon; because the clouds themselves were fleeing as though they'd been swept aside by the hand of a giant. He uttered a string of long and lengthy lamentations as he stepped through the rubble and made his way toward the inert Kunoichi who'd supposedly triggered it. He made it all of five steps before that little speck of dust swirled up again; commanding his attention.

Surely it was the wind.

But the dust didn't settle, and there was no wind tonight. Still, the dust seemed to swirl in one place, gathering in one of the patches of moonlight nearest to Kin. She gave a small cry and shrank away from it; skittering back as the wind that was not wind became a whirlwind, and then a tiny tornado. Though there was still no wind, something was taking shape, black specks obscuring and spinning at a dizzying pace to the height of six tornado glowed an iridescent, scintillating shade of shot out and danced across the floor and Kin cried out. Orochimaru all but froze, his smile slipping away into the night as a strange and haunting tune filled the air, perpetuating this strange phenomena.

Taking shape through the tornado was a man, or something like a man. The figure flashed blue, spraying light in every direction, and not even Orochimaru was fast enough to cover his eyes. When he looked again, when he dared to open his eyes, a figure unlike any he had ever seen stood between him and the kunoichi cowering wide-eyed in the grass. The man appeared to be carved from glossy red and black marble or shaped from liquid metal, save for a white-clothed and scratched _Konohagakure _hitiate draped around his right bicep.

Kin blinked rapidly.

_'What's a missing nin doing here?'_

His clothes weren't so much clothes as skin, though he appeared to wear shoes and was sexless, his whole body was unrelieved black and every contour was crisply defined. He was lean and every muscle was etched, from his shoulders to his V of a chest to his stomach to his legs. There was something wrong about his skin, though. At first, the man or demon or statue made of flesh had reflected light like burnished steel. Now, only parts of him gleamed, the crescents of his biceps, the horizontal slashes of his abdominal muscles. The rest of him faded from glossy black to faded scarlet whenever the shadows touched his being.

Kin swallowed once.

"W-What do you want?" she asked wondering what it was as the humanoid creature laid a hand upon her shoulder. "H-Hey...I asked you a question...?" The words trailed off as they unwound those chafing bonds from her wrists, then her ankles, working swiftly to free her from the chains and succeeding almost at once. Rubbing at her sore wrists, Kin felt the burning sensation in her chest fought the tears, and felt a defiant droplet streak down her cheek when it patted on the shoulder and spun about with an all too obvious intent. Leaving her with the bitter recollection that she'd nearly been murdered moments ago, reminded now, as Orochimaru made the mistake of stepping forward.

"I'm going to be terribly dissapointed if that's you under there, Itachi-kun."

A low grunt answered, and abruptly, he was standing.

"No...you're not Itachi." Orochimaru seemed to decide as the apparition locked glares with him. "Hmm, if that isn't a genjutsu then who...

Radiating hostility, it took a half step to the right, barring Orochimaru from his sacrifice. Before either could speak, the entity flung the cowl back from the shadows of its visage and both shinobi were to stupefied to speak as the moonlight bathed its face in luminance. Most frightening was the demon's face. It looked even less human than the rest of it. The mouth a small gash; cheekbones high; hair a disheveled, spiky black; brows prominent and disapproving above overlarge eyes out of a nightmare.

"Who are you?" Orochimaru cursed himself for his carelessness as the entity mockingly touched a finger to the hitiate and glared with those eyes. They were the palest blue of sapphire; the coldest winter dawn. They spoke of judgement without pity, of punishment without remorse. As the figure studied him, and then the kunoichi at his feet, Orochimaru became more and more certain that the eyes were actually glowing. Wisps of smoke curled out from them from whatever fire infernal fires burned within that hellish figure.

"Might you be a certain...criminal?" Orochimaru was grinning that wicked grin and Kin whimpered softly as a sudden rustling of wind whipped through the clearing. Oddly enough, this small expression of fear seemed to perturb her rescuer, who, in lieu of a verbal reply reached up to the molten steel coating its face and bristled visibly. Exuding a strange yet malignant chakra that any creature would doubtlessly cower from, he bolted forward, and in an instant, Kin realized that something was wrong; because it had Orochimaru by the wrist and throat, levering him off the ground as though he had weighed no more than a feather, perhaps even less than a feather, because now there the unmistakable scent of blood in the air, and the sight of it sent a small trill through Kin. As the pulling, ripping and tearing ended and its expressionless face curled into a small smile, Kin felt a weight lifted from her shoulders; because the arm was...

_...gone._

The silent thing dropped Orochimaru and raised a knee into his stomach before his feet touched the ground. The sanin wheezed out a breath, then those hands of black and blackness clamped down around his ears and deafened him to the next attack, coming in the form of an upturned palm-thrust which immediately accomplished the task of, well, thrusting his chin upward again. Kin watched it raise its leg and coat the limb in a thin sheathe of red light, allowing those serpentine eyes to see a crackling heel descending upon his head with a great and terrible chakra burgeoning it to almost seismic proportions.

_...Fast!'_

Kin winced away from the gut-wrenching crack and ruthlessly suppressed her gorge before it could hope to rise. Meanwhile, the blackish red ghoul had paused, allowing the sannin's feet to finally find purchase upon the soil and reclaim his bearings. Kin blinked and watched him shuffle backward in retreat. All of those blows had landed in perfect synchronization, before her former master could fall more than few inches to the ground; bridging the gap that would've allow him to reclaim his footing and, ultimately, dominate the battle. Now, the black-haired thing awaited those twitching hands of the sannin as they grabbed at Orochimaru's broken neck, and forcefully righted it with a sickening pop.

Then he belched a viscuous stream of wind into the upturned palm that rose to greet that gust.

_'Yuck!'_

Kin forced herself to swallow her bile before she could choke on it; held enrapt by the next move of the Konoha Missing-nin. Orochimaru was still in the process of raising his head the few centimeters it would take for him look his opponent in the eye from this hunched stance he'd adopted. Blackness filled his vision as he found the hand levered before his face, less than an inch spared between them.

Fingers splayed wide and grasping, it could have easily seized Orochimaru's face and continued the combination. Defying the expectations placed upon it, the hand clenched into a claw and clutched at nothingness and emptiness, at the now spiraling energies of wind and flame coalescing into his palm. Transfixed, both shinobi stared at the small, soccer-ball-sized sphere as it bulged and swelled out of proportion before reclaiming its proper shape as a medium sized sphere of crimson nestled within the clenched fingers of that iron fist, growing larger with every second that it was allowed a breath.

_'This elements is...!'_

Whatever it was, the strange apparition and his technique remained static for another second. In that instant, Kin swore she saw a smile as it savored the expression of disbelief and terror in the eyes of its soon-to-be victim. Then the sphere blasted outward; birthing a great and tearing stream of dense crimson chakra so dense that it became visible almost instantly, and all but obliterated the loner amongst loners standing before its wrathful radiance.

The opaque gale nearly blew Kin clear off her feet.

_'I knew it! That's Meitōn! The Darkness Release Bloodline! He absorbed Orochimaru's chakra and sent it right back at him!'_

She shrieked and threw an arm up for her face as the fires rolled over the clearing and baked the sannin's form. Cruel and callous, the pallor of scarlet chakra bathed the clearing in dull shades of lights both onyx and crimson and a malevolent blackish-red in coloration. Their master held the beam in hand for a moment longer, before abruptly extinguishing it within his fist. Deprived of the energies that once maintained its velocity, what little remained of the streaking bolt dissipated soon thereafter, leaving a smoldering swathe of baked mud and charred earth in wake of its cataclysmic destruction.

Orochimaru was standing at the end, arms bloodied and placed upon the soil, bent backwards at an impossible angle. This shinobi had just begun to turn when the earth cracked. It paused, regarding the thin slit in the earth with thinly veiled annoyance. Then the earth shattered and a blade burst forth from beneath the rocky soil. He spun around, staring wordlessly as the tip of the Kusanagi blade hurtled toward his chest, as Kin screamed, as Orochimaru's long and spindly neck and head erupted from the blackened clay and thrust the blade deep into his chest cavity...

...and susbsuquently failed to penetrate.

The muted sihinobi stared at the tip of the blade as it poked at his chest, sparking against the black marble as it struggled to find a way into his flesh. It dangled the severed limb before him mutely, almost as though it knew he'd be displeased, then it _swatted _the longsword aside, spitting more sparks of bluish gold from its palm upon contact. Nonplussed, Orochimaru was already retracting the Kusanagi by the time the mute shinobi was free and clear, gracefully somersaulting, back to Kin's side, back to safety.

Orochimaru scowled as he flipped himself upright.

"To think that you'd break through my Sanju Rashumon so easily...and withstand the Kusanagi Blade...impressive."

The creature turned his face up, and as his eyes locked on the sanin's they flashed from a smoldering blue to a fiercely burning red. In that next moment, three events occurred. The first, being that the demon flicked a hand, obliterating Kin's bonds, shredding the thin cord which held his cloak. Freed from its bonds, the garment fell from his shoulders and draped itself upon Kin. She grabbed at it when it momentarily wrapped around her quivering form, and she quivered because the second event had just occurred.

_He spoke._

_**"Orochimaru of the sannin, you who enjoy the pain and suffering of the Leaf, Cloud, and Sand,"**_His voice was hollow, mocking, but with a feral undercurrent that made the hairs on her neck rise up. His free hand rose, and red chakra coalesced around it, forming cold claws of fire that grew longer even as she watched. _**"Dost thou desire thy judgement this night?"**_the demon asked with two burning points of red light that had never left Orochimaru's for an instant, and had left his clawed hand as a flaming representation of the element.

_'His...chakra...its too...heavy...!'_

Kin swallowed nervously as red chakra began to bubble outward.

_'Is this what an S-Class shinobi's chakra...feels like...!'_

_**"This one is ****now ****under my ****protection."**_The face swung toward Kin before she could even _think _to flinch and the third irregularity amongst all this fear, as that the masked marble and blackish red was suddenly smiling, and falling apart. Without any semblance of warning, the strange shroud of chakra and liquid metal began to _peel _from the face, exposing human features while the former of the Sound looked on in disbelief at his true visage. She found herself presented with a weathered face bearing a thin scar running the length of his neck, touching to the beginnings of scraggly blond, as though someone had tried to slash his throat open in his youth, and missed horrifically. Shaded by these ragged locks of platinum blond, she detected strange whisker-markings furrowed into deep, menacing troughs as were those emotionless sapphire eyes.

_'I've seen that kind of pain before..._She felt such pity for him that she wanted to was...startlingly young. He, a boy who looked to be not a day over seventeen, smiled. Within the tearing rapidity of only two beats, Kin felt her heart shatter, reform and shatter all over again at the sight of that smile.

"Whoa there," A loose and lightly amused voice drawled, "I'm not here to kill you."

He smiled brightly.

_Smiled_ at her, and _-damnit- _Kin's heart slammed against her chest. She flared scarlet as those blue orbs sparked with amusement. Before she could find the words of gratitude the nukenin turned back toward Orochimaru, whisking a hand across his face, donning the demonic shield of burning black and marble once more. She's seen his face for all of an instant, and suddenly, this hellish abomination didn't seem quite so scary to her anymore.

_'W-Why the hell am I thinking that! Th-this is no time to be acting like Tayuya, damnit!'_

Orochimaru tittered softly.

"Kukuku...now I know what you are... He raised a finger and pointed toward the seething spectre, the latter tossing the arm back to him. "So you've finally come to take your revenge for their betrayal have you, _Naruto-kun?" _When an amused hiss arose from the armored shinobi Kin knew that she had just learned the name of her saviour. She swept a hand to her face scrubbed at her eyes furtively, hoping to hide the tears that still threatened to spill down her face at any given moment. Another one? Another nukenin come to take revenge on Konoha during the Chunin Exams, too?

Lovely.

_**"And the village **_**will **_**burn."**_The nukenin known as Naruto announced, plucking Kin from her thoughts with scorn. _**"But it shall burn at my leisure, not yours. My presence here has nothing to do with your petty little schemes but for **_**that **_**one." **_He pointed toward Kin**.**_**"That one of the Tsuchi clan will be coming with me. You won't be touching a single hair on her head, Orochimaru of the Sannin." **_Cold dread _paralyzed _the sannin for a moment. No one had called him that since his days as a Konoha Shinobi, and those were long in the past. The creature was moving towards him, the ground turning dead, _burning, _wherever those blackened soles touched upon the ground. He drew back and re-composed himself as the hostile entity came forward, weaving streaks of orange-yellow flames between them as he straddled the shadows once more; but this wasn't an etching of fire.

It was fire, _inside _his hand.

Where the crimson burned, and for several inches past it, his arm became transparent as glass. It as as if the limb itself had become flame, and that flame banished the darkness to the trees and was something almost holy within its majesty. Now spread from shoulder to fingers, his hand blazed out flame, nearly three and a half feet in front of him, and then died down. Orochimaru was on the verge of forsaking this girl before the archaic creatture split its own face with a toothy grin.

Cold dread froze the sannin further as the spectre placed his hands apart.

_'What manner of technique is this?'_

He brought the other hand up and flexed it and his fingers closed around the fires. Held them,and a scythe materialized. Simply appearing from the chakra, glowing reddish black as was his skin, the crescent hook of a tip dangled from a relatively simple and not at all oblong pole of a handle, one that he shouldered it deprecatingly. Naruto didn't seem to mind at all that his scythe was holding a weapon composed of more flame than actual steel, and if he did, he wasn't doing much to convey that annoyance.

_**"You may try and take her from me, if you wish." **_He smiled and the mask made the expression grotesque._**"But do you know what'll happen if this cuts you?" **_Orochimaru glared balefully at the blade that Naruto kept shouldered. The scythe was almost as infamous as the Totsuka Sword. It wouldn't seal him away, but its ability was just as, if not more-so, loathsome. In light of this, what little composure he had left abruptly deserted him in the face of this dauntless enemy.

"Boy...

The scythe blazed brighter.

"You are going to be damnably difficult about this whole thing, aren't you?" An unamused hiss grated at Kin's ears and she twisted against them. Ruby red iris and slitted pupils commanded all of Kin's considerable attention as those burning orbs. Slitted pupils bored down into those of her former master with an unamused stare, narrowing when the sanin chuckled. Heart aching, Kin spared a glance pas them, for the eviscerated body that had once been her friend.

_'I'm so sorry Zaku..._She sniffled.

Naruto took notice.

"Edo Tensei, huh?" He spat into the dirt. "Were you really going to use her for _that?"_

"And I would have, if you hadn't interfered." Orochimaru proudly reaffirmed.

_"Bastard." _When next he spoke, she was surprised to realize Naruto had abandoned the demonic voice. "You're using that jutsu?"

"Oh," Orochimaru followed them out of the shadows and into the light, where Kin did her best to stay. "You know of it, then?"

"Damn straight I do."

"Kukuku...you drive a hard bargain, Naruto-kun." The sannin pretended to ponder for a moment longer before acquiescing a thin smile. "Very well, you may have that one." He offered a wounded sigh of annoyance to Kin's sob of relief. "Now, if you _haven't _come here to kill me, I'd kindly ask you to leave. I'll need to the village for an appropriate sacrifice, now." Naruto said nothing, feigning that half-lidded stare of those who are prone to suspicion. In the end, he bowed out, and extinguished his flaming scythe.

"You'd really go that far?"

"How else do you expect me to kill the Sandaime?" Orochimaru countered pleasantly. "I'll be needing the help of the last generation to crush him and the village, after all." Nonplussed by the appalling lack of reaction given by the blond, he turned his gaze toward the strange sheathe of marble still covering the teen's body. "So you've tamed that fox of yours, have you?" There was no mistaking the slight twitch given at that statement. "Ah, not quite, then? But you've made a number of improvements to your _Kōton **(**_**Steel Release)**,regardless." Orochimaru chuckled; it was hoarse, raspy sound, it still send shivers of terror down Kin's spine. "Now that we're on the subject, how long as it been since they slit your throat? Four, five years, maybe? You've clearly gotten stronger since then, too their dismay, I'd think, if they knew you yet lived. You've developed each of your kekkai genkai; attained some measure of control over the Kyuubi, not to mention your chakra is absolutely massive."

Orochimaru paused for a breath.

"Now that I've said all those things, I've also brought up an interesting point."

"That being?"

"I cannot stand the sight of you." Orochimaru answered.

"Oh sure," Naruto offered his arms in an unamused shrug. "We're off to a great start."

"I cannot stand the sight of you." Orochimaru began again; he spoke slowly, measurably. "But my hatred for Konoha surpasses even that, as does your appreciation of the_...finer things in life."_Here Kin blinked beneath a sudden baleful glare that fell upon her. She shrank back behind Naruto, painfully aware that the blond was just about the only thing standing between her and an early grave. Those fears made what the sannin said next, all the more frightening.

_"We should join forces."_

"Again?" The rippling blackness parted from Naruto's face but this time it stayed gone. "Look, you saved my life back then, and I'm grateful, but I already paid my debt to you." Kin watched as the black and the crimson receded, seeping into his skin; leaving him exposed in an outfit of mottled greys. Dull slacks of faded grays and reds a thick cloak with a high collar and scarf. The latter of which served th ohide the jagged scar streaming down the length of his neck; Kin remembered, eying the host of weapons on his back with a small gulp.

_'Th-This guy..._

Their likelihood of an alliance genuinely frightened her; because if this strange shinobi became Orochimaru's "partner" then he'd end up like all the other partners._ Dead._No. No, Naruto couldn't possibly be thinking of such a foolhardy and reckless decision; or so she told herself. But...she didn't know Naruto. Whomever he was, he seemed given to flights of fancy as much as fury, and her 'rescue' might have been either and frankly, it terrified her. Standing here, under the moonlight, looking death in the face, cowering behind this boy a few inches taller and a number of years older; Kin was absolutely petrified. Transfixed by the tense scene playing out before the two nukenin, she awaited his reply. She didn't want to think that she'd be spared only to die again, but if Kin Tsuchi retained any fears of him accepting the ensuing offer, then she was about to watch them wither.

_"Oh, you're too much."_

Naruto snorted, laughed, contemptously.

"Well?" Orochimaru countered.

"You must be joking." Naruto snapped back. "I just told you, I'll burn Konoha to the ground, but on my terms, not yours. That's why I didn't stay in your twisted freak-show of a village, remember?" For what had to be the first time, Orochimaru stopped smiling. Oh yes, he remembered that well. Kin found it all the more strange, because she couldn't recall having ever seen someone of this calibre prior to this night of nights.

"Why do you refuse?" Orochimaru pressed. "Your eyes still burn as brightly now as they did the day I found you."

A joyless laugh from the blond.

"I'll say it again; I've no need of your help."

"Then why save this one?" Orochimaru gestured to Kin. "You've never taken an interest in anyone before; yet now you've suddenly started gathering followers?" Kin blinked rapidly as the blond swept a hand through that matted mop of bristled blond once again and silence the verbal rebuke with one of his own.

"She's the first; actually. I've found that there's strength in numbers, what with _that organization _becoming more and more active."

"Then why not assist me?" Naruto quirked a brow, but said nothing. "Oh, don't make that face. I've absolutely no interest in killing you. Besides, the Uchiha's become quite...fascinating during yout little abscence, thankts to that bumbling fool of a Hatake." Now, Kin had been observing their reactions guardedly, and she _saw _Naruto swallow painfully at the mentioning of the infamous Jonin who'd been said have copied hundreds upon undreds of different jutsu.

Orochimaru saw it too.

"I see you still remember how that kunai felt, just as I'm sure you came here to let the world know you're still alive." He didn't hold out his hand, and Kin soon saw why as the limb was now reattaching itself to his ruined shoulder, looking a great deal like snakes and serpents. An eerie hissing filled the air and she turned green at the thought. "Surely during since the last attempt on your life despite a massive chakra, you wouldn't be willing to lend my those four bloodlines of yours, Naruto-kun?"

"My bloodlines are not for you to use." Naruto countered dully ushering Kin forward ahead of him when she began to protest. "Find someone else with four of them." They kept walking, and this time the sannin remained in the darkness behind them. Ushered forward, Kin shuddered, hoping they'd keep going until this awful place and all the memories were at their backs. She wanted nothing more than to leave this damned village and never see its gates ever again.

"I'm grateful for your generosity." Naruto offered a gracious bow, and the next Kin knew, she'd been hoisted into the air, though her master still persisted in speaking. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll need to be distancing myself from here before the Anbu realize I've returned." Wishing nothing more than to distance herself from the murderous madman, she didn't consider the sudden silence of her new ally until he'd turned, reddened sclera reappearing over his shoulder, forcing her to take notice.

"Surely you know that your're the only one with such_...potential."_

Hence the reason Kin inhaled as they came to a stop.

"Pardon?" Naruto shifed just a bit, the nukenin keeping himself between Kin and the sanin. "I was under the impression you and Hiruko still conducted those experiments, or were they utter failures as well?" Uttering an unamused oath, Naruto spun around with such vehemence that Kin _almost _didn't see what came next. Suddenly, he was that hellish creature again, metal rippling back over his flesh again as he flung a kunai, as he stood there and took the sadistic cackling of the sannin when it was effortlessly snatched between two fingers without even a glimmer of effort.

"Is this any way to treat the one who saved your life?"

Suddenly, the silence was deafening.

"Come now, I thought I'd told you to stop making that face." Though he'd yet to move from that spot, Orochimaru could still be heard in the darkness, while they, remained in the light. "You know just as well as I, that its genetically impossible for any shinobi to have more than two bloodlines at a time. And yet you, Naruto-kun, you, without any experimentation or alteration, _have four._ You're living breathing proof of human evolution, a veritable splinter in the eyes of reality." Naruto gave of the rolling of the eyes and turned aside again, ushering Kin away, but not before Orochimaru finished his sentence.

"You also seem to be a bit of a hypocrite, Naruto-kun."

...I have an eye for talented shinobi." the blond relented. "This one just so happens to be female, if that's what you're implying."

Orochimaru wasn't buying it.

"I think that so-called "_eye for talent_" is really just an excuse to start forming your own little harem."

Oh, that one made him laugh.

"Really, is that the best excuse a frustrated old virgin can give?"

Another whisper plucked Kin from her thoughts as did Naruto's expression._ Rather, a lack-there-of._He simply turned around, snatched her up from the ground, and pulled her inward, mashing her head into his chest as he flung both arms around her. Kin saw the dense stream of fire gushing toward them just before Naruto muttered something about holding on. Her hands had only just tightened into the lapels of his jacket and pressed into his chest when the explosion engulfed them.

_"Troublesome."_Naruto muttered against her shoulder. There was a flash of blinding light, followed by intense heat, and then the forest canopy was below them. Kin yelped, flinging her arms around the blonde's shoulders before she could fall from his arms. Holy! She gawped down at the treetops, and the momentous leap from the ground that had brought them through the branches. She also realized there was absolutely nowhere for them to land, because apparently, _someone _had forgotten about the damnable concept of gravity.

"We'll fall!"They hung there, suspended in the air for a moment longer, before Naruto bit his thumb, swung her onto his back, palming four seals in an instant. Of course they were still falling, screaming in the case of Kin Tsuchi, and overall plummeting to their doom, before Naruto ravished her with a baleful glare and showed her his palm. "No. We won't." Thrusting it downward, pointed towards open air, fingers splayed, Naruto uttered something to which she she blinked against the ensuing burst of smoke as they crashed headfirst into...fur?

"See?" Naruto grinned recklessly. "Still in one piece."

"Uwah!" Kin yelped as she struck the soft material, and landed face up against it. "What in the hell is this stuff?"Flinching at the faint tremor that that shook them, she gingerly tapped at what she had thought to be the mossy earth beneath her hand. Instead, her fingers found _fur._Warm, soft, and cuddly. A low growl of annoyance rumbled into her ears as she flopped off Naruto with a mubmling of apologies that ended the instant they started moving.

**"Rrrrrrgh...**

The ground was _not _meant to have a pulse, and it certainly should not be able to growl at her. Kin knew this. Though Zaku was dead and though Dosu had gotten himself killed, the small part of Tsuchi Kin that still logical, knew this. Just as she'd known she should have used _her _bloodline against that damned Nara kid before he trapped in that that Shadow Possession technique of his. So, scrubbing at her eyes with the back of her right hand, she decided to ask the obvious question.

"Where are we?"

**"On my back." **A deep, guttural voice answered.**"Noisy kunoichi."**

"I-It talked!" Kin gawped.

**"Kit...why the hell did you summon me in the middle of the air?" **The unamused voice inquired further. **"And right next to Konoha, no less!"**

"Needed a place to land." Naruto amended. "Sorry about that, Kyuubi."

**"Hmph." **The massive voice grunted, prompting

"Kyuubi?" Kin flopped off Naruto's back, realizing that they were moving, and that Naruto had folded his legs to sit. "As in th-that Kyuubi? The n-nine tailed fox?" Naruto patted the crimson coat they'd been sitting on this entire time, rubbing the hide of the great creature who was currently carrying them to safety. "So y-you're...

"The one and only." Naruto patted its hide again. "I used to be this guy's jinchuuriki until a certain...incident. Now, for some reason, I'm able to summon him whenever I please."

**"Kit!" **Mighty and thunderous against the night, a deep rumble suddenly resounded from somewhere beneath their mount. **"You _dare _summon me as a mere beast of burden?" **Though no answer did come, the voice apparently decided the impeding silence was worthy of retort. **"Bah, no respect! I'd flay you alive if it weren't for that damned seal!**Something _stamped _loudly.**"You'd better have a damned good reason for bringing me out, by the way, the lot of you! For daring to rouse the great and mighty Kyuubi no Yoko, I'll slowly skin you all alive! FOOLS!" **

"Just ignore him." Naruto waved his hand flippantly. "He's pretty much always like this."

Suddenly, and without the slightest hint of provocation or anything to indicate otherwise, they were moving even faster than before. Kin risked glance toward the beasts back and counted what looked like nine tails of fur and they looked so soft, too! As the last of the trees fell away, the creature _-this was no mere hill on which they'd fallen- _burst from ta mighty leap and _roared. _**"Who's this one, then? I don't seem to recall her face, kit." **Kin gawped gaped as nine tails of crimson fur swayed too and fro behind the beast, bifurcating the treetops within a single blowing and creating massive quakes whenever its four paws drummed against the ground, which, was quite often.

"She's an ally." Kin blinked rapidly as Naruto leaned forward and delicately placed both hands behind her head. An instant later, her headband unfurled. Naruto must've procured a kunai at some point because when Kin next saw him, he was tracing a thin and parallel line across the surface of her hitiate, carving straight through the middle, just as his own forehead protect had been. When he gave it back to her, she hadn't a clue as to what he wanted her to do with the thing.

"Go ahead." He mimed a tying of the cloth, because he was wearing his own hitiate over his forehead again, clearly intending for her to do the same. She flushed at the thought, but complied; because the gesture felt slightly empowering as she readjusted her now scratched headband. "Feels nice, huh?" Kin blushed as he show her an identical scratch marred across the Otogakure symbol, matching that of the battered but slashed Konohagakure sigil he so proudly wore.

"M-Maybe."

**"A comrade, then?"** The deep soprano of a voice hollered through loud laughter. **"So we're finally starting!"**Kin paled as the kitsune shook itself mightily, nearly dislodging them. Some small part, the trace remnants of her that were still loyal to Oto, screamed and wailed and rejected such a thing; because she needed to come to terms with the fact that she was essentially a nukenin now, and that meant that she'd gone from being a follower of Orochimaru, to a wanted criminal. Her mind shrieked at her to flee from this deceptively calm boy before her, to let go of this thing and run, but her body, frozen with something was very much not fear, refused to obey the earnest command.

"Starting what?"

"My revenge." Naruto answered pleasantly, displaying an eerie nonchalance that Kin couldn't bring herself to feel. "On the Hidden Leaf Village." He pulled down his scarf, exposing to her once more the jagged line that ran the length of his throat and then some. "My very own village tried to kill me, but, obviously, I survived. However, before I take my revenge, I need allies, and loyal ones at that. Too many to count, scores upon scores of skilled shinobi that I can trust with my life, not to betray me."

He pointed a finger.

"You happen to be one of them."

"M-Me?" Kin blushed, abashed. "N-Now wait just one second! You don't even know me! And I don't know a damn thing about-

"There's not much to know." Naruto interrupted cheerily. "I've spared _your _life, so now I'd appreciate it if you'd do the same."

"Whoa!" She gripped down upon the kitsune as it reared back and roared a challenge barreling past another blurring countryside frame. Naruto laughed and remained cross-legged, entirely unfazed by this sudden burst of agility. to be of a like mind in that regard, as she stared down helplessly, flinching as a massive tail arced past them, sweeping aside the serpents with was all they could do just to cling to the beast's back, lest they too be blown away with the rest of the forest.

_**"If you're going to make a habit of sharing that little sob story,"**_Another unamused chortle rumbled from the nothingness. "_**I'm afraid we're going to have a problem, kit." **_Unsurprisingly, Naruto wasn't even remotely fazed by the biju's retort. He patted the place beside him, to which Kin _-reluctantly- _scooted over. Despite the fact they sat upon the back of a giant nine-tailed fox the very thing that had ravaged Konoha once before and just cleared the boundaries of said village, the scene remained oddly peaceful, full moon and all.

"No, no," Naruto shook his head. "She has a right to know, if she's going to be our comrade. Besides, the Land of Demons is still a long way from here. It'll kill some time." Kin blinked again, at a loss for words for only the second time in her young life. The first had been when her parents died, one that she did not care to revisit, the second had a much more _moralizing _effect on her as she beheld the forest streaking by beneath them. Now, snatched from the jaws of death by a terrific _-not to mention handsome-_mising nin, she'd learned that someone else had suffered through a terrible betrayal and that someone had _survived _when there'd been no one to save him.

"You're wondering why I'm going to all this trouble in the first place, aren't you?" Naruto smiled pleasantly. "Well, our next destination if the Land of Demons. There's a certain _priestess _there that made a request of me a few months back, after I wandered into her country, something about destroying some demon or something. While I'd like nothing more than to stick around here and nab another of your master's unusual allies, circumstances have forced me to "_honor_" that request." Below them, there was a low, trickling reverberation of laughter from Kyuubi.

**"You're right to think him crazy, little one."**

"Nu-uh," Kin shook her head and mimed a hand at scar on his jawline. "I was asking about...well...just _how _did you get that?"

Naruto exhaled heavily.

"Well, it all started when I stole the Scroll of Sealing...

**A/N: BWAH I have like five seconds to write this authors note so it'll be quick! This. Is. A. Harem. Vote for the girls you want to see, but know that Kin is already involved, obviously. Yes, she is now officially considered a missing nin, and YES, the characters are older in this fic. Naruto never met Jiraiya. Naruto might not ever meet Jiraiya. Obsviously he wants the village to burn down but he's not going to be very nice about, and yet... I just couldn't bear to have Kin-chan be killed! Don't worry there won't be a big long FIVE CHAPTER flashback, or anything. Hope you all enjoy the new Dark Naruto and the massive army he'll be creating! Mwahaha!**

**Reviews keep me writing ~Nz**


	2. Legacy of Hatred

**_Legacy of Hatred_**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was hospitalized.

Wrapped in a full body cast; swathed in bandages, and trying to remember who had put him in the hospital to begin with. Even in his youth, he'd never taken such a beating as this one. He'd suffered a series of burns that only one flame could produce; leaving his legs charred beyond recognition; dreading the thought of a wheel chair or some other constraining device. Still, it could not be said that he was alone in his time of need.

He received many visitors.

Most of which, fretted over his condition, his health and his blood pressure, but there was only one to whom he paid special attention. That one, did not come for quite some time. Sarutobi's opponent had crushed his throat and rendered him mute; though what a miracle worker chakra had proven to be in that regard, but he found himself in sore need of that man's services as he waited and wasted away in his bed, fed through an I.V. drip.

He could almost swallow without pain, now.

During the later afternoon, precisely one day after the Kyuubi's sudden appearance and subsuquent dissappearance outside the vilage; he arrived. Sarutobi knew and expected him; but the perverted giggling that heralded his entrance down the hall did little to assauge his doubts.

Mercifully, the door creaked open before things came to a head. He knew this only because of the rusty hinge and its creaking; the damn bolt needed oil from all the rust it'd accumulated. Clogged and wooden, his guest was as ridicuously garbed as he was in his taste for face paint. The fact that he was currently chewing on some dango made his entrance even more anticlimactic. For a time, nothing was said between him and this strange white haired scroll carrying hermit.

How had he come to be here?

Sarutoib could feel the glare boring into his upturned face, unbandaged and left to bask in the warmth of the sun. But even the light of day couldn't dispel the chill in his heart; and it failed to penetrate the gloom in his soul. Sarutobi Hiruzen had come face to face with death and death had worn the face of a dead man. A certain blond, to be precise. Ah yes, the memories were coming back to him now as he recalled it; the memory of racing to his office at the sudden appearance of the Kyuubi; opening the door as a massive tremor shook his office, as he saw those glaring crimson eyes and tomoe as black as hell itself, the hand around his throat as it was summoned-

"Damn...you look worst than I did after Tsunade caught me peeping."

So much for dramatic tension.

Creaking an eye open, the Sandaime leveled a withering glare upon the man who'd spoken.

"...Jiraiya." Was all he could manage.

"Easy there, don't strain your voice." The infamous Toad Hermit proffered a vial of some strange clear substance to the Sandaime. Abruptly, he jammed a hand into the bag he was carrying, seeking an important item that would be essential in the hokage's recovery. "That," He glanced toward the vial his master was already downing, "Will take the edge off the pain. "Now, I'm no Tsunade when it comes to stuff like this, but I brought something that should have you cured in no time."

_'More medicine?'_

"Here," Unaffected by the silent rebuke, the hermit fished into his bag and produced a certain orange book from within. "The latest edition." With the words _"Icha Icha" _written upon the cover; it landed posthumously in Sarutobi's lap, accompanied by a wide and ear splitting grin from the middle aged author. Sarutobi maintained the grimace for another instant before he caved. Jerking upright amongst the blankets, he was freed of his bonds and bandages in an instant; prepared to snatch the book from his lap and begin reading the semi-questionable material held within.

Jiraiya grinned.

Ah, the legendary healing powers of Icha Icha at their finest!

Sarutobi slumped against the pillows after reading all of a chapter in five seconds. Sweat beaded his brow from the effort demanded upon his back; the loosened dressings revealing the scalding point of impact where the fires had first found his flesh. Moments later, he was breathing slowly, and the tension melted. Jiraiya sagged. Who could command such a flame? Granted, he knew the answer, but he was loathed to speak Itachi's name aloud.

...he was too strong." Sarutobi wheezed suddenly.

Jiraiya's smile vanished in an instant.

"Gramps, who the hell did this to you?"

Only the flames of Amateratsu burnt that badly.

"..."

The silence was deafening.

"Gramps!"

...Mikoto's...child."

_"Fuck."_ Jiraiya swore, a snake of dread coiling inside his gut, a snake of losing everything he'd ever held dear, and not knowing the price. He'd suspected such that man, but this attack had seemed too brazen to be Itachi's work. "So Itachi was the one who-

Sarutobi shook his head...

...the youngest son." he rasped aloud.

"Eh?" Jiraiya blinked. "Sasuke? That runt of an Uchiha?"

Sarutobi shook his head.

"Then who?"

"..."

"For the love of kami, who!"

The name of the culprist added ten years onto his life.

...it was Naruto."

_(Flashback to last night)_

Sarutobi Hiruzen was not alone.

He'd already known, long before he saw the crumpled knob of brass. Someone had been here. They'd tripped the barrier tag placed on this door. Judging by the burned imprint of sandals, the intruder had either survived the ensuing trap, or disarmed the firing mechanism and continued on their way. Despite all his might, and, having a squad of Anbu at his beck and call, Hiruzen paled. Color leached from his face as he contemplated who or what lurked beyond this very door.

"..."

Was that laughter just now?

He'd been certain he'd heard a muffled chortle coming from his office.

His locked office.

Steeling himself for whatever horrors awaited him on the other side, Sarutobi wrapped a hand around the ruined handle and twisted it counter-clockwise. Creaking upon a rusted hinge, it swung open without resistance and revealed a scene straight from his nightmares. His balance went; he barely remembered to lock the door behind him as he entered. Someone _had _been here. Someone had been here in the dead of night, in his office, _his sanctuary,_ and that someone had left a whirlwind of destruction in their wake.

"Impossible," he choked as he looked around in the darkness. "Who could have...done such a thing?"

Paperwork was scattered.

Furniture lay battered.

Walls were tattered.

Nothing escaped the purging forces that swept through his office, not even the carpet; having fled to his desk in an attempt to escape the savagery. Entire strips of torn cloth and upheaved upholstery littered his desecrated desk alongside with his steel safe, now little more than twisted ball of scrap metal perched atop the mound of debris. Moonlight shone through a hole in the ceiling, providing the only means by which Sarutobi could see the scope of the destruction.

And the note.

Sarutobi saw it, perched atop the desk. Wedged around an oddly shaped kunai that resembled Minato's Hiraishin kunai, albeit smaller and less unwieldly. He unfolded it from the hilt and unbound a slip of paper, a small piece of parchment that was otherwise indistinguishable from the rest.

_"Konohagakure will burn by my hand."_

There was no signature.

_'What madness...?'_

Perplexed, Sarutobi pocketed the note with an errant flick of the wrist.

Whomever they were, they'd obviously found what they were seeking. Sarutobi didn't bother to inspect any of the hidden compartments or pannels; because nothing had survived the massacre. Most of them were little more than gaping holes in the floors or walls, a scarce few had been overturned; the rest had been scorched beyond recognition. Sarutobi clutched at a wall for support. Who could have done such a thing? Who could have made off with decades of sensitive information, and not only that but-

They'd known where to look.

**"!"**

Sarutobi froze as his gaze fell upon the Scroll of Sealing, where _it _had been hidden away._ No._ He edged forward; slowly, warily._ No._ Not after all those years. _No._ It wasn't possible. _No! _He'd buried the memory and the mistake and prayed that the boy had moved on to a better place. _NO! _Trembling fingers popped the catch on the false bottom of the floor, and flung the trap-door open. Dust spewed out of the opening. Dust, dust and more dust, but nothing emerged from the void where the granules _hadn't _collected.

_"NO!"_

Sarutobi cursed his carelessness. He'd never once stopped to think that the boy might be alive. He'd been pronounced dead at the scene by medical examiner Yakushi! He'd had his throat opened, and there hadn't been any time to save him from what Hatake insisted was a "training accident". Sarutobi couldn't find the words as he stared into _nothingness_, where the scroll had rested. This couldn't be possible, shouldn't be possible, he'd bled a veirtable found of blood! There had been entire buckers of the stuff, so much blood...too much...far too much blood...

Regardless, the Scroll of Sealing was gone.

_Again!_

Thief, vagabond, trespasser, the "God of Shinobi" could name all these more, and he'd still fall short of the mark. Perhaps this was what the village deserved. Perhaps they did deserve to burn for their crimes against Minato's child, before the third round of the Chunin Exam ultimately began several months from this today. Perhaps this was what _he _deserved, for keeping his silence. For refraining, as weakness and cowardice took hold; as they tried to do so now, when an unamused chortle swiftly severed the silence. Sarutobi couldn't bring himself to discard his fears and turn to face him; because his footfalls already padded toward him in the moonlight.

Sarutobi was alone, locked in his office, with a madman.

"Are you too afraid to face me yourself?" Sarutobi Hiruzen began as he gripped the wooden remains of his pipe, his knuckles white on the plastic circle. "Is that why you've sent a _Kage Bunshin _in your stead, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Someone laughed; it was a deep, throaty sound.

"Woe unto ye, ignorant man. Woe unto ye, incompetent fool."

**_"Aw...seems I've been found out."_**

Sarutobi wanted to crumple.

"So you've come." He spoke; slowly; cautiously. "Back from the dead, I take it?"

"I was never dead." The deep, double timbre of an adolescent's voice replied. "Old man."

Sarutobi knew this, just as he knew that the culprit was still here, in his office.

"What brings you here, then?" He asked unto the darkness. "Revenge? Naruto, even if you kill me it won't bring them-

_"Kill you?"_ An unamused voice asked aloud. Reverberating off the walls a shadowy figure dettached itself from them. "Why would I want to do that?" Sarutobi didn't need to look to know as a bloodied spurt of gore and viscera spattered the room. He already knew the scent of blood in the air and to whom it belonged. It was the life blood of the Anbu guard; exitnguished before they could draw their blades and strike from the shadows in which he lurked. They, the true shadow, emerged from the blackness as the light shifted, revealing their face for the night and the world to know. Held within an iron grip, the bloodied Anbu mask was the first thing to be seen; the first projectile to be thrown as he hurled it at Sarutobi.

**"!"**

Reflex was what spurred Sarutobi's hand toward the ruined mask. _Reflex _was what prompted him to catch, and _reflex _ultimately brought about his end. No sooner had he reached for the flailing piece of procelain, than he was undone; regretting that ill-timed decision. Battered beyond recognition; dripping in a way no shard of porcelain could, Sarutobi Hiruzen realized the truth of what it was that he'd been holding all this time.

A severed head gift-wrapped with explosive tags.

_'Blast it!'_

He'd tried to release the head, but some strange substance coated his palm; he was unable to extricae it from his hand. Unable to conceal his disbelief, Sarutobi twisted around. All he saw were those smoldering scarlet irses; wreathed with hatred as the moon moonlight peeled away the darkness and revealed the source of the crackling sound.

"You-

There was a snapping of fingers and then cold fury burned the world white.

With a dull _whump, _the first explosion rocked Sarutobi's world. Deafened by the blast, bleeding from the ears, he slumped to his handa and knees. Cold and stunned by the first explosion, he wasn't at all prepared for the sight of two crimson irises as they met his gaze. He wasn't prepared for the next blast either, when it sheared through his right arm. How had that happened? There had only been one severed head, sheathed within numerous explosive tags. Therefore it was only natural to assume it should've ended in _multiple _detonations. Two seperately timed explosions just didn't make any sort of sense.

Neither did the fact that he was abruptly strung up on a cross by his feet.

_'As I thought...an illusion.'_

Grimacing, Sarutobi forced his hands into the release seal. Offering a silent prayer for the deceased; he pushed his chakra outward. Subsuquently incinerating the severed head within his hand without so much as a seal and shattering the illusion. Nonplussed by the sudden technqiue, dry laughter trickled through the darkness and blew away with those ashes. Once again, the inexorable stride of an unseen adversary carried the one known as "Naruto" toward Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"I see," Someone muttered. "So you're able to break my genjutsu after all."

Sarutobi turned toward the voice, slate grey eyes locking upon two pinpricks of scarlet in the darkness. Crumbling away from what remained of the ceiling, debris and dust rolled away from the roof as he approached; spraying around his feet. Revealed was the face of a corpse from years before. Said "corpse" was very much alive and _very much _spattered with the blood of the living and of the dead.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Sarutobi asked.

"Killing you would be merciful." The voice spoke again, leaning against an erected slab of stone amongst the otherwise haphazard debris. Strapped across his back was the scroll of sealing. Belted with that, wound into a makeshift holder at his hip and within his belt, was the Niidaime's Sword of the Thunder God. When the light gleamed upon the scratched hitiate Sarutobi became reaffirmed in those suspicions; realizing that this nukenin, this former shinobi of Konoha, had raided Konoha of her most valuable treasures, and intended to leave with them.

All of them.

"Mercy, is for the weak." Naruto said.

He was a handsome fellow, if intense. His blond hair was disheveled, his blue eyes intelligent, his features balanced. Whisker marks tripled each cheek, cheeks that had once dimpled with a constantly bright and enthused grin; no matter the situation or mission. Now, he was intense. His face had hardened, his visage freed of the baby fat that had cursed him in his younger years. Chiseled and nigh but expressionless, that face bore a series of angry red lines from left ear to right, drooping down his chin and neck.

_'He looks just like you, Minato.' _Sarutobi realized with a pang of guilt. '_If not for those scars he'd be...oh, how did it come to this...?'_

Those scars had faded with time, but the memories hadn't. Naruto's scarf couldn't cover his wounds, and even now, he idly reached a bloodied glove up to caress one such line; accidentally adding another trail of temporary disfigurement upon the throbbing muscles of his jugular. He could see the pain in those eyes. Pain born from loss, hurt, and betrayal. So great was this pain, so incredibly intense was his desire for vengeace, that Naruto actually planned to take those feelings and drive them into the heart of the village.

"Stop this foolishness!"

"Says the fool to the sage." Naruto snapped. "I will not be swayed."

Sarutobi didn't have the time to play with a mere doppleganger. Then again, he couldn't just leave it, and neither could he afford to ignore the clone. Bunshin though this was, every shadow clone was equally as deadly as the original; hence the reason it had been labeled a kinjutsu to begin with. Naruto could have seeded dozens of the things around the room. If he learned the capabilities of using genjutsu, than anything was possible; he'd already made off with most if not _all _of Konoha's treasures hours before.

_'I must excercise caution.'_

Kage Bunshin, existing only to defeat an enemy or accomplish their given task, could be even more dangerous than a genuine shinobi.

"Don't even _think _about it." The clone remarked when his gaze slid toward the exit. "You're not to be leaving until I say so." He jerked a thumb for the items in his possession. "You're going to fight me, and, if you think you can bring yourself to do that, then _maybe _I'll be kind enough to put you out of your misery. These are already with the boss. And when the damiyo finds out, you can kiss your sorry Hokage ass goodbye, old man."

"It's not too late." Sarutobi pleaded with the teen. "Lay down your weapons, Naruto, I beg of you! Reconsider this course of action!" Nonplussed, Naruto leered at the man he'd once thought the world of, the man who was stronger than the Yondaime, whom he'd so admired. Now there was nothing but hatred. Hatred for them both; hatred that stripped the calm away from his face and twisted it into a furious snarl.

_"Reconsider?" _Naruto spat back. "Maybe you should have told Namikaze Minato to reconsider, huh! Or Uchiha Mikoto!" He laughed, a harsh, bitterly lonely sound unlike before. "Maybe _they _would have reconsidered, but no, you didn't say anything back then, did you!" He jammed a finger forward, accusing. "No, you didn't! You should've told Uchiha Itachi to reconsider! Maybe _you _should have told _him _that it would be _me _who'd go apeshit once I found out who my parents were! _But you didn't!_ You didn't say a word! You let him! You let him go through with it! You let him _murder _the last little bit of the family that I had, you damn dickhead!"

Sarutobi was frozen.

_"You _put me on a team." Naruto continued,the picutre of calm once again, _"You _let me make friends. And _you _let them slit my throat once I learned the truth." He paused, rubbing at his throat as though he still remembered that fateful day. "You're right to say I'm dead. You killed a part of me that day, old man. Your ignorance cut deeper than any blade could, or did you not know?" Derision tugged that face into a pessimistic inquiry.

"Tell me you didn't know, and I'll walk out of here, right now." Naruto offered. "Tell me, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

Secretly, he'd wanted to telll him. He'd wanted to tell Naruto who his parents were. But how could he have done it without breaking him?_ "Hey, Naruto! Your father was one of the greatest shinobi to ever live! Wait there's more! Your mom was an Uchiha too, isn't that great! Oh, there's just one tiiiiiiny little problem, though. Your dad was already married. Your mom, too. Unfortunately, that little one night stand of theirs never worked out and it caused a HUGE scandal because, well, your mother wasn't exactly allowed to fuck the Hokage, either! Yup, he never spoke to her again after that affair they had while they were already MARRIED, which, by the way, makes you an illegitimate Uchiha and a bastard child!" _

That sounded just peachy!

_"Oh, and don't be getting your hopes up about finding your mom, because she's already dead! Dead as a doorknob! Who killed her, you ask? Uchiha Itachi! Guess what else? He's your brother! Sasuke too! But if you think that makes life any better, don't worry! We'll never tell because you'd go crazy and try to destroy the village!" _He'd tried to keep it a secret; Mikoto and Fugaku's sudden abscence during the attack of the Kyuubi, the very same attack that left such a rift between the clans.

Naruto had ferreted out the truth.

"Well? Why should I reconsider?" Scoffed Naruto. "What is there for me here, amongst you lot?"Sarutobi cursed his ineptitude when nothing came. "See? Nothing. I'm here to test my abilities. To make a statement, to expose the truth that you never let me see. And you say its not too late? Not too late, to go back to being cursed, kicked and stoned? Not too late, to be weak? Never. Never again. For what you've done to me, there will be nothing; no mercy or restitution; the village will burn."

"So you're willing to fall that far then?" Sarutobi countered. "To sink into darkness, to become hated and loathed by the world?"

Naruto was stone cold as he glared at the sandaime, drawing his arms across his chest in outright defiance of their disbelief.

Finally, he spoke.

"I reject your grievance against my clan," Naruto said in a formal voice, reciting words that held about as much passion as Hyuuga politics. "Your concerns are baseless; your fears, pointless." They were cold, deadened, _empty._ Sarutobi had an all too eerie impression that he'd completely memorized the mantra at some point. If his mother hadn't been forced to abandon him, would have have undergone such a dramatic transformation? Would a death threat still be levied, as it was now?

Naruto must've undergone intense, both in the subtle art of politics and in the brazen brow-beating of one's opponent. This was the first time he'd spoken such formalities; and in the prescence of the man he was trying to kill, no less.

"I shut my eyes a long time ago." Naruto reaffirmed. "The things I seek lie only in the darkness. If neccessary, I will wipe the name of Uchiha from the face of this earth and die alone. Howver, I cannot be stopped here; not by you. Not by Uchiha Itachi. Not by Uchiha Sasuke. They will be purged from the clan of Uchiha, from the blight you've inflicted upon us. They will be eliminated, and we, all those of the Uchiha, shall rise from the ashes.

"Uchiha Itachi is a traitor to both Konoha and to the Uchiha Clan," Naruto continued, his voice flat, almost monotone. "But he is of my blood. Uchiha Sasuke is a disgrace to Konoha and to the Uchiha Clan, but he too, is also of my blood. They have sullied the name of Uchiha and that is unforgiveable. Therefore, I will remove that stain. I will be the one to kill them, and once they have been killed, the clan of Uchiha, our legacy, will be renewed. This I have pledged to my mother, and to myself." His blue eyes never met anything, instead staring off into the distance. Sarutobi met that hardened gaze and felt a small chill shooting through his spine with the realization.

Naruto _wasn't _talking to him.

Naruto's _true _audience lay silent in their coffins. Dead. Buried. Devoured by worms, maggots, and creatures of the earth that told no tales, ike their victims. Indeed, the dead told no tales, and Hiruzen was left to bear silent witness to traitor's eulogy. And all the while his disbelief and dismay flattened into a helplesness that he had never before known. So this then, was the curse of hatred laid upon the shoulders of every Uchiha, of Naruto.

Cold fury burned the world white.

In the end, the blood of his mother had surged to the fore. Naruto was Mikoto's child. There was no doubt of that. Whether Minato himself had known the truth, as he sealed the Kyuubi into his son, remained to be seen. Regardless, there was no explanation for Sarutobi to give the boy. Just _thinking _of one delivered a long and lengthy migraine to the sandaime's skull. There was nothing. Nothing he could do to correct the mistakes he'd made; compounded by mistake after mistake as he tried to protect Naruto from his destiny. All the while Naruto had suffered for it, quivering with unsuppressed rage; raped by the knowledge that he _might _have had happiness in another, one he would never know now.

"It's already too late." Naruto lifed the tip of a finger and smiled; grinning as a predator would for its prey. "The day that you forsook yourself and stayed silent, it was too late. The day that you sealed my mother's memories of me, the day you made her forget she had a third son, a son that she _loved;_ it was too late." Naruto opened his hand and with an electric snap-hiss, the darkness swelled with chakra as the Sword of the Thunder Spirit gushed lightning and was ignited; shining brightly within his hand.

"It seems you're blinded to mercy, then."

Those had been the wrong words to say to Naruto.

"You...!"

The worst words of all.

"Do you want to know what I think about _mercy_, old man?"

_Damn but the boy was fast._

"I don't think I'm feeling very _merciful _at the moment." Naruto snarled, whispering into existence behind Sarutobi. He backhanded him. It was almost ridiculous. Hiruzen practically flew from the force of the blow. He sprawled in the debris and got up slowly, his hands and knees badly scraped and bleeding from the impact. He scowled into the dark, and Naruto, hard on his heels, paid no heed. Swung with enough force to split the earth, the blade was no more than an inch from its mark when a sudden thrust to the stomach sent its owner flying backward.

That was what should have happened.

Sarutobi had connected with that punch. Solidly. He'd been certain. He'd dealt a crippling blow. Something was off about it, though. He'd struck Naruto head on, and boy wouldn't yield. Sarutobi did. His final blow smote upon a solid. What was this? This was not flesh and blood he'd struck. This burned. This, was indefatigably dense, unyielding, unmoving. So incredibly thick, that broke every bone in his right hand. Naruto arched an eyebrow in wry amusement and waited; waited for the Sanadime to gasp aloud in pain as his brain. Then he moved abruptly was gone. Sarutobi was sent sprawling.

Naruto grunted, slowing as his flight turned into a strangled slide. Then he stalked forward, glowering furiously as he blurred. Heel shooting out from within that cradle of darkness, his next kick caught the Hokage between the ribs and stomach; striking his kidney with enough force to launch an ox into the next prefecture.

Sarutobi flew.

Literally.

With a wheezing gasp, Hiruzen was launched across the ruined office for a second flight. When that boot arced toward his ribcage for a second strike, Hiruzen inhaled and exhaled; gathering chakra to be expelled within the breath. Expunging every last bit of the chakra he'd been gathering, the Sandaime Hokage. Naruto grinned, heedless of the gout of fire sweeling before his vision, consuming his open palm. None where present to witness the horor etched across the Sandaime's every feature as the flame funneled into that palm and was harmessly absorbed.

_'He's able to absorb my chakra?'_

"Truth be told, I'm spoiling for a fight." Naruto lowered his hand and curled it purposefully about the elongated hilt of his sword. "Since you're the only shinobi of my calibre in this whole damned village, you'll be the first, Sarutobi Hiruzen. This vessel may be a clone, but, as I'm sure you've realized, its every bit as solid as the original." Naruto raised a knee into his hest and flung him to his feet with all due force; the blow driving into Sarutobi's ribs like a sledgehammer.

"Now, get up!" Naruto snarled as Sarutobi struggled to straighten. "We're going to see which is stronger. The Uchiha, or this Will of Fire that pervades this disgusting little hovel you call a village. Come and no more of your candied words. I'll test my new abilities against you, just this once." Naruto bowed, low at the waist, a hand across his chest, head dipped in mockery. "It'll be short, but I'll be sure to make it worth your while, bastard." Blue pupils dialated within the sudden _twang _of color and bitter sarcasm, flaring scarlet and inverted; forming a streak of scarlet that began to ooze tears of blood and throbbing veins.

With appearance of three bars stretching out of his pupil and crisscrossing into a strange hexagonal shape, there could be no mistaking it. Those inverted slits and twisted irises, absent of tomoe and sclera, wideneing explosively within a malestrom of rage.

**...Amateratsu."**

Sarutobi had already been weaving seals, and that was all that saved him. No sooner had he placed his hand into the final sign than a dense fog of black flame smothered a harmless stump. Flickering out of this world, he whispered into existence behind his attacker, having discarded those cumbersome kage garments in mid-flight.

Naruto was gone.

_'When did he-_

"Where are you looking?" Naruto asked from somewhere to the east. "You can't afford to just stand there, can you?" Pain lanced through him as a hand closed around his trachea and gave a violent twist of the wrist; he was gone. Somehow, his attacker had already reappeared several yards to the east Too slow, he realized, as a boot found his hip. When his right foot didn't land the way he'd wanted to, it didn't require much in the way of brain cells to guess at the expression the Sandaime Hokage.

"What have you done?" He gawped at the blond; horror etched into his expression. "Naruto?"

It was the wrong question.

"What have I done?" Naruto snapped, his face flushed with anger. _"What have I done?" _He repeated eyes small and angry. "No, _what have you done_, you feeble, insipid old coot!" Sarutobi was stunned; because he hadn't the strength to resist as Naruto's phantom limbs dragged him upward. Fingers curled around his throat with a sudden and terrifying intensity. "Nothing! That's what! All that time! All those years! _NOTHING!"_ Sarutobi grasped feebly at those fingers as that incomparable vice tightened; constricting his lungs, scraping him against what had once been the eastern wall.

His back met the wall and a searing pain jolted up his spine.

Naruto glowered at him.

"Be damn glad that this clone's out of chakra." He rumbled.

By then, the black flames had already found Sarutobi and driven him under.

_(End Flashback)_

"You can't be serious."

"Quite." Naruto retorted as he completed the tale, stepping over another log as they travessed the Swamp Country. "THat's my story." Still smiling, he retracted his leg from the bog, leaving Kin to peer into the murky waters as though eyed the bog as though it were a pimple; ready to be popped at any moment.

"Need a lift?" Naruto offered, thumbing at his back and the leather harness he'd constructed for their now useless gear.

"Surely you jest."

Naruto smiled wordlessly and thumbed at the open strappings.

_"Fine."_

Kin cleaved herself to him; wordlessly wrapping arms around his chest and locking legs around his waist. Naruto arched an eyebrow and said nothing. Kin was _certain _she'd felt a soft shudder; laughter trembling through those broad shoulders. But by then she'd already laid her head into the crook of his neck and locked her limbs tight. Kin tried not to think about it when their cheeks brushed. Tried to ignore the dull roarings in her ears that screamed at her to retreat; because they were perilously close, much _much _too comfortably close than she'd ever admitted.

She tried so many things and not one of them worked.

"Ready, Kin?" Naruto asked, his face little more than orbs of blazing blue glinting in the night. "I'll have to ask you to hold tight." Naruto smiled that reckless smile and, Kin turned to stone. Petrified by the sudden swirling of his eyes; transfixed as the sapphire bled out and swapped shifts with scarlet. She stayed that way for quite some time, back arched and fingers half-clenched. Naruto paused, an expression of subtle amusmsent wisking across his lips as hers dropped open.

"Impossible," she hissed as she looked around in the darkness. "No way. No _way._"

"Way." Naruto reminded her matter-of-factly. "I never said how many bloodlines I had now, did I?"

Kin gawped.

Gawped, as his scowling sneer snapped into succulent scarlet. Naruto loomed over her, his eyes shifting, warping, changing as they spun. Kin began to count the number of black markings within these strange sclera; round as they spun; just before becoming totally eclipsed by the three tomoe in those blood-red irises; hardened against white sclera. She felt the life leave her lungs in a furious hiss of foolish disbelief. He hoisted her upward upon his back as though he hadn't heard a thing; stradling her as though they were the most intimate of lovers.

"Sharingan."

He leapt forward again, his sandals splashing through the mud as he sprinted into the night, flying freely as they crossed from one bough to another, drifting amongst the branches at a unhurried but all the same urgent pace. Kin could hardly see through the blackness, the rainwater dripping from her bangs furthering her inability to see. Naruto jumped up into the upper canopy to get a better view, barely avoiding a swipe from a particularly large branch that appeared in his perpipheals.

"Ow!" He yelped, frowing as a series of red, and already healing scratches, appeared and simultaneously faded fromhis face.

_'Those eyes..._

Kin wasn't focused on any of that.

"How in the hell can _you _have the Sharingan?" Kin cursed her carelessness; she'd forgotten all about those supposed bloodline. _But the_ _Sharingan?_ Impossible! Not possible! Only two Uchiha remained in this world. One was leagues behind and fading into the distance with the village. Kin knew the second better than the first; only through name and reputation. _Uchiha Itachi. _Formerly of Konoha, now an S-class criminal murderer and the other, a world class criminala man none wanted to meet. Uchiha Itachi. The man who had singe handed , some random stranger possesed the infamous Copy Wheel, of _the _most lethal dojutsu known to mankind?

"Now, just a moment-

Hence the reason for her sudden cry of condemnation.

"Kin, I'd rather not-

"There's no fucking way you're an Uchiha!" Once again, Naruto's words and the tranquility of the early morning were soundly shattered by her indignant shriek."That isn't natural, damnit! I mean..._look at you! _You look nothing like at all like an Uchiha so don't you dare say that you have-

_**"Shut the hell up!"**_ Naruto roared, his voice no longer his own. _**"That's enough!"**_ Swift and sudden, the command cut into Kin like a knife. Naruto had changed faces. Gone was the bloodthirsty and oh-so-charming shinobi. In place of that vacant expression and feigned inattention, was a demon come from the deepest darkest pit of the underworld. There was no trace of pity to be had amongst those smoldering red irises as they swiveled upon her and held her now fear-filled gaze.

"I-I didn't mean-

Naruto wasn't having any of it.

**_"Not another word, Kin_." **Naruto growled, his voice that of the strange spectre he'd been when she'd been rescued. _**"This is your final warning. Insult me again, and I won't be held responsible for what happens next. Are we clear?"**_

A little moue of pain escaped Kin's lips.

_"What?"_

_**"Do not insult me." **_Naruto repeared in the brackish and hellish voice. _**"I will not tolerate insults. Nor will I tolerate meaningless and senseless attacks upon my person. Should you ever think to make such an attempt of the former or the latter, then loneliness will become the least of your worries, Tsuchi Kin."**_

Kin bit her tongue lest she speak any further; because Naruto had taken offense. But there was something more to this sudden outburst. More than the mild displeasure and irration she'd seen before, ripped away with the ignorant naivetie that she'd never be able to inflame his anger. Until this point, there was nothing she could do; no mistake she could make, to anger him.

What a fool she'd been.

Kin cursed her carelessness for the second time. She cursed her weakness and herself; because a blood-red iris suddenly swelled before her vision and consumed everything else. His right eye had slid aside and captured her attention, glaring bloody red daggers; ravishing Kin from head to toe. Despite this Naruto somehow stayed the course. Although she remained riveted within his silent stare, not even the slightest change of pace occurred. No change in the breeze, no variation from the steady percussion of rising and falling.

Nothing.

Whatever protests she might have given were stifled beneath the smoldering statre. Made mute and meek by the weight of his gaze, Kin shied her gaze from his after the first ten seconds. Even then, she felt his eyes burning into her skull, and she was silenced; frozen amidst the lack of that brutal and terrifying stare. Dreading the thoughts and eventual doubt they'd bring, Kin opted to take in their surroundings whilse she could, while they hurtled from branch to branch. At first she _feigned _fascination, but it wasn't at all long before she was gawping in open wonder and awe for the easel of colors and textures; the very landscape itself blurring into a rainbow of intense shades and hues because of Naruto's intense agility.

"Do we understand each other?" An unamused sigh plucked Kin from her musings. "I said, do we understand each other, _Tsuchi Kin?" _Swearing to herself, Kin returned her attention to Naruto and saw disgust flare across his features; mingled with charign only after the blond realized she'd seen what she hadn't been meant to see.

"I...

Abruptly, Naruto jerked his head around and locked it forward again. She saw the muscles bulge against his neck; the grinding of teeth against some unknown thought or memory. Kin blinked, and, too her dismay, felt her eyes moisten for the first time since they'd begun their journey. Hot and stinging, harsh and boiling, she knew at once that it was not the wind that had caused them. Stange, there hadn't been a concious decision for the droplets welling in her overlarge eyes.

_Tears._

Without Kin's express permission, her body had taken this lack of self-worth and produced sadness and sorrow. Within this stream of misery, she quivered and became furious. Furious, both for herself and for his sake, and for anyone who might witness her weakness. Aghast, Kin pressed her face into his shoulder in an effort to staunch the tears.

She'd failed.

Failed, as the days events caught up to her, and smothered her senimentality. Failed, as a weak hiccuping sound emerged from her now open mouth. She failed and failed and _failed again _as their pace slackened, leaving her with the bitter realization that her comrade cared nothing for her tears. He didn't care, and now, she'd be punished for her failure. Most kunoichi never had such dismal thoughts about themselves, or their ability to succeed. Most kunoichi, weren't stolen from an Iwagakure cradle in the dead of night. Most kunoichi, weren't raised by Orochimaru and told that they would always be inferior unless they succeeded in every task, completed every mission, accepted all request and obeyed them, no matter how degrading they might be...

Most kunoichi, weren't Kin, and most kunoichi would have felt something in this situation. Kin did feel. Thanks incessant numbing of her nerves and the cruel, _cruel _treament of Orochimaru, her childhood had really been little more than pain, pain and more pain. She'd been raised, to feel nothing. Which was why she felt nothing as he unwound the strappings keeping her bound to him as they had done for the duration of their travels.

_She felt nothing. _

She felt nothing, settling numbly on the balls of her feet as she was helped out of the harness. She felt nothing, lowering her gaze, staring blankly at the hardened soil beneath their feet. She felt nothing, though she wdid think it unusual that the temperature was noticeably less humid than before. Strange, why was the soil here hard, when in Fire Country it'd been soft and pliable? But she still felt nothing, even as her ears pricked, and detected the faint burbling of a nearby brook, a stream, perhaps?

_She felt nothing._

Beyond the clearing they'd settled into, past branches through which the light of the waning moon shone, she could hear the forest. A forest deafeningly silent prior to their arrival, now teeming within the hooting of mountain owls and the chirping of morning jays and of life so intensely vibrant as the dawn neared. Kin viewed it all with a sudden dettachment, as though she were looking through the eyes of another; living in a fantasy world in which she would wake to find that she'd already been killed.

_And still, she felt nothing. _

Tsuchi Kin felt nothing; because she'd been so intent on preparing herself for the imminent rebuke. She'd shed tears, and tears were perceived as a sign of weakness in the shinobi world. For all those who served Orochimaru and had yet to suffer the betrayal she'd survived and her teammates hadn't; her brief mental breakdown was weakness incarnate. Numbed, Kin hardly felt a thing when hands closed around her sleeveless shoulders; she offered only a blinking of the eyes when no strike or beating ensued.

"S-Sorry." She aqcuiciesed, without even knowing what she'd done. "I-It won't happen again, really, it-

...you bet your ass it won't."

Confusion became prevalent, and Kin dared to creak open an eye when there wasn't a rebuke, either. His hand closed around hers and laid claim to her fingers. Numbed, despite the sudden gesture of kindness, Kin allowed herself to be led half a step northward; before behing hauled forward with unexpected violence.

The sudden embrace caused her to silently release the tears she had been holding back. Naruto, in spite of his awkwardness, hugged her tighter. Experiencing the faintest flicker of warmth within her cheeks, she was against him, and cursing her petite frame. Naruto was a good head or so taller than her, so when she cleaved herself to him, she felt like a child. Stumbling and fumbling around, unable to find her way, with no clear destination in sight.

Inexplicably, Naruto did the most profound thing.

"Alright, alright." Naruto mumbled sullenly. "I'm sorry...jeez."

"Nani?" Kin blinked upward at him, utterly lost by his sudden repentance.

"I've told you about my past." Naruto spoke suddenly; the burning man gone, replaced by the shinobi as those smoldering tomoe locked upon Kin. "About this scar, about my betrayal, about everything leading up to my first days in the academy." Kin bobbed her head, albeit weakly. She'd begun to wonder why he was washing her hair. Did he know she was proud of those silken tresses? Reviled as she and Tayuya-being two of the few kunoichi- had been in Otogakura, they'd both taken precious care of their hair. Kin, fretful thing that she was, had lived with the constant fear that someone would come along and lop off those locks when she wasn't looking.

Despite insulting that failure of a Haruno, a small pang of guilt stabbed through her chest. She'd mocked the girl for having long hair, whereas _she _deliberately allowed hers to become as long as it was now, through choice and not indecision.

To her, her hair had been a sign of status, of beauty and certainty.

Kin swallowed and shoved the thought away from her mind.

"B-But I thought your name was Uzumaki...

"Indeed," Naruto bobbed his head, smiling that mock-predatory smile again. "My surname _was _Uzumaki. But these, _these _eyes of mine came from my mother, my real mother." Kin batted her eyelashes frivolously, unable to comprehend the sudden revelation. His real mother? Only an Uchiha could wield the Sharingan, short of transplantion. Naruto must've had an Uchiha for a parent, then. But if he'd been the son of Minaot Nadone that, then the Copy Wheel would be constantly activated, and it hadn't emerged until only just now.

"Wait a fucking second...you had another mom?" Kin eyed her comrade curiously; dubiously. "How the heck am I supposed to accept that?"

"Believe what you want." Naruto replied flippantly. "It changes nothing."

"Eh?"

Naruto let the silence hang between them for a moment longer before savaging it with the name.

"Mikoto Uchiha."

A tiny moue of disbelief escaped Kin's lips.

"But how...

"That," Naruto sighed, sweeping her back inton the harness again, "Is another story for another time."

"Wha-hey!" Kin squealed in disbelief/horror as Naruto's mighty leap carried them back into the canopy. She had all of an instant to see the river teeming below them, all of a moment to see the sudden streak of black racing up at them from below; and she blinked.

Naruto was of a lesser mind in that regard.

"Oh, you have got to be-

He flung a kunai downward, drilling the knife into the bush. Too little, too late, the strange thing curved _around it _and raced upward. Naruto's sudden bellow was the only warning Kin received, before a phantom limb smashed them from their former perch. The world flared a cruel, ugly black and then she was falling into nothingness. A hand closed around her thigh. Shrieking in dismay, Kin twirled for hald a pace before she was swept back into Naruto's arms.

"Seems we've been discovered." Naruto answered, effortlessly hauling her away from the next blast. "Ah, what a pain." He managed to squeeze of a shot of his own before something bolted from the brush and caught his attention.

He swore.

Then something smote them from the sky and sent the two of them crashing through the branches. The world flashed a crul and ugly black for the final time, and then Naruto was hauling her free from the haze, and cold fury burned the world white with her return to reality.

"Damnit Kin, snap out of it!"

"What-OI!" Her eyes flew wide and large as she saw a mottled green blur rushing up to greet them.

Kin bit back the urge to scream as they hurtled toward their death. They'd been so close. _So close_! Only moments ago, she'd clung to Naruto's back fretfully, their argument smoothed over, differences set aside; tempers assauged and all but forgotten. She'd draped herself over him and they'd resumed their journey. And for an instant, just a brief moment in time, everything was as it should be, her lips mere centimeters from his own; because she'd peered meaningfully into his eyes and he'd stared back and she'd leaned forward and he'd reciprocated...

And then everything had exploded.

She hadn't seen the roiling fireball until it was already too late. She'd felt an incredible flash of heat, then Naruto was hauling her upward, ascending into the canopy at a breakneck pace. It wasn't going to be enough and they both knew it. From the vacant look adjourning his face now, Kin had the strangest feeling that the blond shared her thoughts on the matter of the interruption. She'd been so caught up in that she hadn't a clue as to what was coming next.

_Damn but they were fast._

The next attack came from a narrow choke point where the branches thickened; only a few yards from freedom. Just another mile to go, and they'd be free from the swamp. Given another minute, a great and sprawling countryside would have been laid bare before them; crossing the border of Demon Country for the first time in nearly two years.

_They never made it._

Like all good ambushes, the second attack came at a time and place where they least expected it. Whereas the first explosion had been relatively easy to evade; the second wasn't. Detonating directly beneath their feet, she'd seen Naruto turn, eyes flying wide and furious with disbelief. Scarce had he flung the kunai into the brush than a hulking shape of black and mottled greys materialized behind them, its skin a deathly pale shade of grey, its eyes small and angry, beady slits of ruby red.

"Aw yeah!" Within an eerie cackling, Kin saw the mouth behind that flap of cloth, and cringed away from the noxious odors of his breath. Then the fist filled her vision. _Too fast._ Kin had time for this and this thought alone, and then Naruto brought up his hands and spoke as his Sharingan inverted for the third and final time.

_**"Begone."**_

Something crackled and whipped forward.

_'What the hell...was that?'_

As the sickening crack flung itself through her ears, so too was Kin flung away. She dropped herself as far on the opposite side of his back as she could. There was a concussion nearby and Kin gawped as the blond absorbed a blow he could have easily avoided; because he'd sent the mammoth muscleman hurtling away and across the forest. Kin didn't stop to look. She grabbed a kunai from Naruto's holsters; the one on his right leg, and the ambidexterous sheath on her left thigh.

Though the distance was easily twenty meters to the target, she flung the knife-it served its purpose as a distraction-and was already in the process of cutting herself loose by the time, their attackers realized that the barrage of kunai had been just that; a feint to buy her the time she'd needed.

With a series of practiced and precise slashes, she freed herself from the harness, dropping into a crouch almost before his feet touched upon the branch. Naruto arched an eyebrow; either surprised or impressed or neither at all, as he paused in reaching for the bandaged hilt and handle of his sword. Naruto barely erected the wall of water before a dense stream of wind and flame buffeted them from all sides, rendering the verticall water wall utterly useless as the two nukenin were flung from their perch and launched into empty space.

"This is fucking ridiculous!"

Kin swore a black and condemnatory oath as they fell, plummeting like a falling stone. Laughter filled the air above as four figures flew past, clearly intent to witness their demise. She had no excuse really. She'd been dangling over this very view, from this very branch, only moments before. Except now that view was enlarging. _Rapidly._ Kin couldn't even bring herself to turn her body inward, such was her shock at her sudden and unexpected end.

Naruto only smiled.

_'He's crazy!'_

Kin had even _less _time to realize this as the ground filled all her vision and Naruto flung his hands out. A thin wedge of something too solid to be chakra_-a ribcage-_forced itself between the two nukenin and their death. Then they plunged into the earth. Naruto's outstretched hands did nothing to break their fall, but the wedge of bone _contracted;_ protecting them and driving them under the soil's skin like a splinter.

The strange shield collapsed an instant after they hit and the impact slapped Kin as brutally as if a giant had clapped his hands together over the whole of her body. She didn't know where they were, only that they were alive; alive, and she couldn't breathe and it was unbelievably dark with no light by which to navigate and-

Unfortunately, she wasn't out of danger just yet.

Naruto slammed into the ground with a _thump._ There was no white-hot flash of pain as she'd expected. Instead something warm, soft and infinitely yielding held her, cradled her, dragged her out of the ground as the stern terra firma slipped away from her body and revealed a thick and soppy mire into which she now splashed harmlessly. She wasn't going to drown as she'd feared, she'd only ingested hot mud and water, and those were certainly better than broken teeth and blood and bones.

_"Douton: Yomi Numa."_

Naruto removed his hands from the soil and the swamp withered, leaving Kin on dry land. She stood; it was a fumbling, flopping, attempt and a ridiculous failure. Her insides churned from accidentally ingesting too much of the goop, and she retched; coughing up a sod of earthen clay, dislodged from her lungs. With the Uchiha's aid, she flopped out of the crater and onto her back, drinking deep of the night air, laying there on her back for what seemed like an eternity, trying to understand what had just happened.

Warily, she creaked an eye open, the air coming weakly to her lungs as she tried to sit, and made it as far as her elbows. Those strange bones and chakra faded; vanishing into nothingness as Naruto rose with her, asessing his injuries; regenerating with a slow and painful popping of bones and flesh.

"Are you...alright?" Kin knew those were the wrong words; because Naruto's smile crumpled as he uncurled the barrier of bone. This time, there could be no mistaking his injury. The Steel Release was peeling_-flaking-_from his body; because that last attack had also drilled right through his ultimate defense. There was no mistaking that familair popping sound as he forced his right shoulder back in and wrenched it into the socket, locking it into place.

"Do I _look _alright to you," Naruto hissed, trembling with pain. "Kin?"

At some point, she must've started laughing, because Naruto and the Kage Bunshin who'd erected the swamp to cushion their fall, took immediate offense. Glaring bloody red daggers before realizing exactly what had the kunoichi in such hysteria after such a close call.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Naruto wasn't laughing; because Naruto _wasn't_ relieved.

"Survived?" Kin ventured.

Naruto groaned in disbelief.

"Honestly!" Kin felt her head twist aside as an exasperated hiss graced her ears. "What the hell would you've done if I hadn't used the Mangekyo just now?" Kin said nothing, staring wordlessly at the shinobi cradling her; because she was blushing furiously despite herself. His face contracted in annoyance once he realized she wasn't hearing a word of what he was saying. She flushed deeper when he stooped his legs and swept her back up into his arms, his gaze locking on the horizon.

"Now, you'd better hold on damn tight." The words had barely even left his lips before the world blurred out of sight. "They've gotten a headstart as it is!"

"W-Wha-

Naruto wasn't having any of it.

"They're about to kill the priestess of Demon Country, damnit!"

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**A/N: LOL I HOPED YA'LL LIKED THE NEAT LITTLE TWIST i GAVE NARUTO! we get to see shion next chapter! Also, his bloodlines will be explained.**

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_There is nothing either good or bad, __but thinking makes it so._

_~William Shakespeare._


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